Posted on behalf of Evelyn Schofield.
Our May reading was touched with sadness as we remembered Kieran Egan, long-time supporter and much loved contributor to Poets Corner, who passed away earlier this month. We plan to do something special in June to recognize this fine poet. Till then, listen to him reading this One Minute Poem which he recorded for us a year ago.
Our first featured poet for the evening was Natalie Lim, who read selections from her debut chapbook arrhythmia. These poems cover a wide range of subjects mused upon during the time of the pandemic, but as she says herself “mostly, it’s a book about and for the people I love.” Her delivery was engaging and expressive and showed how she has been inspired by spoken word poets like Sarah Kay. In One Poem Wonder, an accident with her parent’ car prompts her to speak of poetry as something beautiful rescued from a car wreck and brings into focus her nagging fear that she might be “a superhero whose only power is burning out early”. The Science of Holding On contrasts scientists’ effort to conquer time and see into the future with her own simple desire to slow the hands of the clock and linger in the present, where “everyone I love is now”. In Six Months and Counting she asks her dog Luna to “teach me to be good“ and yearns to have the dog’s simple faith and ability to love people “in every small way they allow,/trying to make this world, yes, a little gentler,/ however I can.”
The evening continued with Jude Neale reading a diverse selection of poems from several of her published works. Her poetry speaks of family and relationships and calls up deep memories with images that strike to the heart, inviting us to see new meaning in things we previously might have overlooked. Her poems are not afraid to tackle difficult subjects, but always sorrow is lightened with small telltale signs of love or even a spark of humour. In poems like Why is it always an insult to be ‘just like your Mom’? she proudly talks of the traits she shares with her mother. Teddy Bear’s Picnic touches obliquely on the subject of child abuse and a cherished stuffed Panda called Max, who “when I wasn’t sure what childhood was, [my bear] held the mirror”. In Blazer of the Universe she considers Mozart’s famous melody now familiar to the world as the children’s song “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and wonders out loud if the great composer could have known that his music would be “for all the sleepless children to come”. She is a trained singer and her delivery is evocative and moving. Her body of work exemplifies her philosophy that poems should always show love and poets should be positive torch bearers in the world.
All in all, it was an inspiring evening of community through the medium of poetry. We hope that you will join us on June 15 for the next reading, our last one until the fall.
